Here, now, stories

by Eastwood, Peter

Abstract (Summary)

Here, Now: Stories
Peter Eastwood
The four long stories in this collection focus on men struggling with questions of
responsibility -- personal, familial, moral -- that characterize their relationships with
others: the betrayal felt by a teenage theatre usher once he realizes the projectionist
he admires is an unfaithful and abusive husband; the anxieties faced by a young man
after his partially artificial teeth corne loose just before he proposes to his girlfnend;
the strange comection made between a displaced university instmctor and an
immigrant taxi driver; and the new hope found by a young father during the intrusive
visit of his bizarre, bom-again father-in-law. Al1 of these men face significant and
often unexpected dilemmas as they negotiate their ways through contemporary urban
[ives that are suddenly revealed to be different than the ones they envisioned
themselves living. These stories reposition these characters on the precipice of new
discoveries about their lives, wherein which their recognition of the realities of
present tinle and place is a necessary first tentative step towards maturity.